Introducing Base. Invisible yet important Magento 2 extension

Here, at Amasty, we are always thinking how to make our extensions better. Thus, the idea of an auxiliary extension has come to us. Meet the foundation of all our extensions — the Base module.

In this post, we are going to introduce it to our blog readers. Though our customers should already know the extension, we are almost sure that not all users realize the presence of an extra module within the Magento 2 installation.

As already mentioned above, Base is a valuable add-on to each extension purchased from us. It was designed to provide Magento 2 users with extra information and make lives better, by the way.

Every Magento 2 extension by Amasty comes equipped with Base. You can find it by navigating to the Admin Panel of the store. Then, click Stores from the side menu and choose the Configuration option. In the Amasty Extensions section, select Extensions & Notifications.

There are two sections in the Base module: Installed Extensions and System Information.

Let’s expand the first one.

Installed Extensions

Here, you will find the list of the installed Amasty extensions alongside with their versions and the update statuses.

The up arrow points that the update for the module is available.

When a user notices this mark, he or she can proceed to the Amasty website using a direct link to the extension’s page and download a new version of the package.

Also, by switching to the product page, a customer can find the latest user guide, the module’s change log, and the list of new features. The green check mark means that everything is okay and no actions are required.

Please, notice that the list of extensions doesn’t include the Base module itself. It will be renewed during the installation or update of any other Amasty extension.

Now, we can expand the next section called System Information.

System Information

This section contains useful information for store administrators and technical staff. First, it’s a Magento Mode that gives a quick overview of the current mode your e-commerce store is running. There can be a Default, Production or Developer statuses.

Next, the Current Time, that reflects the time of your server. Hence, this information may differ from your current local time.

And finally, Cron. This section is added to the Base extension in order to provide a user with a clear understanding of the current Cron status, whether it’s active or not. That’s why one can notice the latest actions performed by Cron (up to five).

Bonus

Apart from the features mentioned above, the Base module has some additional functionality to assist our software developers. In other words, when a customer contacts our support, specialists have the ability to enable the debug mode to solve the problem in the quickest and the most efficient way.

That is all you need to know about the Base extension for Magento 2. But we still have some information on the Magento 1 Base that may help you find some insights about future changes that expect this invisible extension.

Magento 1 Base

To find the Magento 1 Base extension, proceed to the store’s Admin Panel and go to the System menu, then find the Configuration option. When done, please, switch to the Amasty Extension section of the side menu. Here, you will need the two options: Extensions Store and the familiarExtensions & Notifications.

Extension Store is a small showcase of our modules that includes hot deals and offerings that are currently on sale. Of course, from here a user can navigate to the Amasty website and take a closer look at other extensions:

If you switch to the Extensions & Notifications section and expand the Installed Extensions section, you see the same list of modules as described above for Magento 2 Base:

The newer possibilities will be available in the Notifications section. First, a user can enable or disable the Admin Panel notifications about Amasty promo campaigns and released updates. Second, the Troubleshooter section can help users find a problem themselves:

Just hit the Show button and check possible errors, conflicts and other problems that may interrupt seamless store performance. As you can see, Magento 1 Base is also a very useful solution for e-commerce store administrators for many reasons.

Bottom line

This was a short introduction to the Base extension capabilities for both Magento 1 and Magento 2. In short, this invisible module provides Amasty extensions users with the actual information about the available updates and a list of system insights. On top of that, the Base extensions help our technical support to quickly find out and fix various issues that customers can face.

For now, hope you have a general picture of the Base module built in our Magento 1 and Magento 2 extensions. Anyway, feel free to ask questions and comment below.

About The Author

As an Amasty Marketing Manager, Yuri is confident that focus on customers is the key to success in e-commerce. Apple is his personal example of a brilliant product marketing strategy. Yuri loves Hitchcock movies, music by Muse and Manchester United.